


The Wolf and the Rabbit

by bennijie



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bucky Barnes is sad, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Hydra (Marvel), Loss of Parent(s), Original Character(s), Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Bucky Barnes, Roadtrip, but that's okay because he's hanging out with a child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 22:33:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19344016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bennijie/pseuds/bennijie
Summary: 'Death inspires me like a dog, inspires a rabbit'Bucky Barnes wanting nothing more to forget his past and walk his own journey and create his own destiny through what time he had left on Earth. His mind filled with regrets and trauma from the influence of HYDRA, he decides that he'd save someone else from future regret, a girl with a tattoo of a bar-code on her skin and a band aid on her heart.The two of them try to rebuild from the ground up, their new life with each other.





	1. Begin Again

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah if you read my 'regrets' i revamped it into this :))))

April 2014 was the weirdest and most stressful month of his life.

Somehow in all the confusion, he had gotten clothes and gone to the museum. He felt like he was on airplane mode, navigating the halls of the museum and looking at exhibits. Right now, he’s staring at a plaque of himself in a museum showcase about Captain America. According to the information, he’s been dead for a very, very long time. The whole place smelt of a musty nostalgia that plagued his mind. The memory is there, he’s just having a hard time getting it out of his head.

He feels like his whole world is falling apart, but he doesn’t know why it’s falling apart.

He wants to run.

“James, Bucha, bucha-“

“Buchanan Barnes” he interjects with flawless pronunciation.

His eyes cast down to the small girl before him, blonde hair neatly styled to sit on her shoulders. She was wearing a grey hoodie that reaches past her hips loosely over a floral dress he got from a charity bin.

“He looks like you” She says softly, taking a step forward to look at his portrait and read the fine print. “Why does he look like you?” her voice was soft, almost a whisper.

He wondered the same question, taking a step forward with her and squatting to her height. She looks at him, confused and he looks back.

“Because he is me” He says

“That’s you?”

He nods “Yeah”

She looks back at the plaque and tilts her head slightly. “Born 1917” she says

“Yeah” he stands up, re-reading it over and over.

He watched in the corner of his eye as the young girl walked off to look at the outfits and gear he used to wear in the sea of people that was in this tiny corner of the world.

He tried to take in as much information as possible, not only rereading that and many other things about Steve’s life, but jotting them down as he went around the Smithsonian.

He found the young girl 2 hours later in a dark room with a projector staring at Peggy Carter on the screen, talking about her days with Steve and the war. He’d heard of her before, a name that was mentioned through unintentional eavesdropping that was never truly erased somehow. Her eyes were glued to the screen, her hands were neatly folded in her lap with perfect posture.

He watches her for a while, there were less people then there were at lunch time now. They were the only two people in the small room.

“She doesn’t want to talk about him” she says suddenly “Her eyes tell a lot”

Bucky hums.

“Soldier,” She turns to him. He perks up slightly and stands up straight. “Why are we here? What are our orders?”

He sighs, sliding the tiny journal into his jacket pocket and looking at her blue eyes in the dark. “We don’t have orders.”

She blinks and swivels in her place to face him “Why?”

He lets a huff out his nose. “Because we don’t anymore” he snaps slightly

She doesn’t say anything.

“We have to go, C0”

She nods, sliding off the leather cushion and skips towards him, the two of them exit the Smithsonian, never to return.

* * *

 

So here they were now, in a car park that overlooks a bank across the street. HYDRA had bank accounts scattered around the country in different names. She knew the passwords to get in and wrote them down for him to use and withdraw money from the account in New York. It had a fair amount, and he was surprised it still had money the day after the fall of HYDRA, he had assumed that it’d all be withdrawn immediately and stored somewhere safe.

He came back quickly and as quietly as possible.

Wordlessly, he gets in the car and sits next to the young girl in the passenger seat, she was looking at a service dog that was walking past, she waved at it, it didn’t wave back as he started up the car

Bucky sighs and takes off his baseball cap on his head and throws it into the backseat carelessly, a thousand dollars is totally not suspicious. "We're going to Los Angeles" he says breaking the silence, beginning to drive down the road and putting on his indicator to turn right. "It'll take us 2 to 3 days at least, 4 if we're running late"

"Isn't Los Angeles really crowded?" she asks, not phased over the fact that they have to drive two days. "That would put us at a higher risk of being noticed" Bucky almost hated the fact that she thought like more of an adult than a child.

"It's more of a danger to me than you." He corrects, switching gears "We're catching a plane" he says "To Romania" he checks the rear-view mirror quickly to see if they're being followed, but nothing familiar comes to mind and turns right after a white work ute passes in front of him.

"Oh" she says nonchalantly, casting her eyes out the window. She looks like she wants to say something but doesn't.

Bucky doesn't really pay attention to it though, trying to keep his mind on the task. His first stop to stay the night is in Nashville, which is a hopefully only 9-hour drive. If it's 0934 now, then he'd get there at around 1843. Hopefully, they'll be able to check into a motel under a fake name and get a good night’s rest as well as plan for the next day as well.

"It's a nine-hour drive" he says, then realising that she can't read minds without touching him, so he continues to fill her in on his plan "To Nashville"

"Okay" she says "There are two bank accounts for those residing in Nashville. I suggest we don't access them until the day after to avoid suspicion. Or maybe not at all"

Bucky silently agrees as he turns onto the highway.

"We just gotta be careful" he says to her "One wrong move and we could end up dead"

The girl agrees with an affirmative nod. She looks out at the road in front.

"We have to set down some ground rules" His voice became more demanding, stern, like one of her old officers that trained her to fight.  "I know you have powers that haven’t developed properly yet, so try not to do anything like that. They'll report you to the police or something and we don't want that. In fact, don't bother using your powers at all"

"What about emergencies?" she asks

"Only when I say"

She stays silent.

"Also, don't show anyone your barcode," he gestures to her wrist, that's been bandaged up to not show the barcode imprinted on her skin as well as covered by the purple hoodie sleeve. "Keep it covered up at all times" he clears his throat slightly. "And you do as I say, when I say it. Okay?"

"Understood soldier"

"Don't call me soldier"

"My apologies, sir"

He sighs. Something occurred to him

“You need a name” he says “I can’t keep calling you by your number”

“But I don’t have a name” she says, peeling back the bandages a bit “I have a code”

“Not anymore” he says and turns onto the highway. “What’s a good name?”

“I don’t know” she says

He was talking to a brick wall.

“We’ll think of something”

This was going to be a long trip.


	2. Her Name

The drive to their first stop for the night was interrupted only a handful of times, mainly for bathroom breaks or to stretch their legs, spanning to only 10 minutes at a time, possible even a little more if for their lunch break at around 12. Bucky swore that he had to buy a leash for the kid, she kept wandering off and looking and touching everything in the nearest vicinity. Playing with the novelty hats and the music albums that have been outdated for years.

He ended up buying her a trapper hat to keep her occupied for the next few hours until they got to Nashville, as well as a puzzle book she'll most likely complete in a few hours, but she was mainly occupied with the colouring in book for kids she carried around everywhere.

Bucky noted how she didn’t talk much.

A kid her age would be commenting on everything and anything, how that birds looks or how fast they’re going.

It was becoming almost irritating, with only bad small talk like 'that's a weird car' or him telling her not to do something. She didn't seem to have much to say either, working on her puzzles or staring out the window to the silence of the car and its radio. She fell asleep once after lunch, her head lolled over to the side with the trappers hat on looking to be in a some-what comfortable position.

He decided in that car that he was going to give her a name. He can't go around calling her 'girl' all the time. People will think it's weird.

The barcode had a serial number underneath it. C0-N14, he never found out the meaning of it, he never wanted to. He only knew she would someday lead HYDRA into a new age, the more he thought about it, he more disgusted he felt towards that group that abused the two of them.

But a name was permanent.

C0-N14.

Con.

Connie.

Her name would be Connie.

He'd probably need to somehow acquire a fake ID for the both of them, which meant more than small talk and actual questions about her, she'd most likely ask the same questions back. She was the curious type. He wasn't really in the mood to dive deeper into his memories.

She was staring out into nothing when he told her.

"I have an idea for your name" he states, rather loudly.

She looks up at him, drawing her attention from her sudoku puzzle, staring at the side of his face as he drives "Oh?" she asks, a little hint of enthusiasm.

He cringed slightly. "Connie" he shuffles in his seat “Do you like that?”

She ponders for a moment "Connie…" she repeats to herself “Connie…” turning the window to watch the passing cars, repeating it a few more times and smiled.

* * *

They got to the motel around 7:30. He didn't have trouble finding it since it was one of the last towns before the Nashville border and they were even luckier that it was relatively cheap for one night and two beds. He noticed that Connie stayed close, either out of obedience or a new environment, he would never know.

He turned the key to one of the rooms upstairs, being greeted by even colder air from inside, a small kitchen table in the even smaller kitchen as well as a couch and TV. The paintings in the room was various landscapes. The light of the room flickered, which annoyed him into the beyond.

Connie wandered in aimlessly before getting a glass of water and sculling it down and going for another one. Bucky reluctantly shut the door behind him and locked it, making sure the windows and curtains were shut tightly so no one would see in. He then checked the bathroom, no lock but it also didn't have any form of a window, he figured that Connie would be small enough to hide under the sink in case of an emergency after opening it and looking inside. The big window by the beds was shut tight as well, he could break it open with his metal arm if he had to.

Connie tilted her head as she sat on the kitchen bench and watched him as he walked around the room. She took a sip of her 3rd glass.

"Don't drink anymore, you'll get sick" he warns her before making his way over to open the fridge.

3 little things of milk and a jug of cold water. He shut the fridge, she could go intangible and fit in there as well. He could hide in the cupboards or even in the bathroom behind the shower curtain.

"Okay" she says, downing the rest in one go and placing it beside her.

"If something happens" he begins, turning serious "hide in the bathroom cupboard."

Connie's eyebrows furrow together as her hands rest in her lap neatly. “Okay sir”

Bucky begins to pour himself a glass of water to cool him off from the stress. She slides off the bench and onto one of the beds, taking a bible from the bedside drawer. Bucky leans against the cupboard and watches her read the title of the black book with gold bold writing and opens it.

"So, this is a bible" she says "I was told of what it was, but I've never seen one" she says to either him or herself

"You know what it's about?" Bucky asks.

"I had to learn many about religions. Of course, I know what it's about" she weighs it in her hand "for a book about earth's history, it sure is a lot lighter than I imagined" she crosses her legs together and sit neatly and comfortably on the bed.

Bucky chuckles. "You know, some people believe it's fake?"

She cocks her head to the side. "Fake?" She asks "Well, I guess that is believable. With people have different opinions on what is real and fake or the variations between. Like with mythology and many gods and I guess 'cultists' are also right as well"

Bucky shrugs and takes a sip of the water. "Well, they do have opinions"

"Like Jonestown" she says "believing so hard that they truly believed peace was on the other side. Probably the only good quality about that place was equality and equal opportunities provided to each member."

Well, she was right in one way.

"Do you believe a God exists?"

Her eyes cast down to the book for a second, lingering. "Nope." She shuts the book “do you?”

He pauses, trying to take in how _easily_ she said it. He shakes his head as well “I suppose not”

If God were real, he wouldn't be alive.

* * *

 

It didn’t take long after that for her to fall asleep on the couch watching late night cartoons on the TV. He turned it over once the news started to play footage from yesterday. It all happened so fast that he’s still trying to process all of it and he also didn’t feel like watching what he had done. The two of them ate Cup Noodles at the small circular table, it was entertaining to see her eat something other than processed foods for the first time.

She burnt her tongue.

He thought it was cute.

_“You need to blow on it with your fork” he said before demonstrating._

_She nods confidently before taking in a mouth full of air and blowing on the noodles and then hesitantly stuffing it in her mouth._

_“Can we have this every night, Soldier?” she asks_

_“Bucky” he corrects “my name is Bucky”_

_“Like the man in the museum?” she asks_

_“I am the man in the museum”_

_“Oh”_

_They go silent._

_“I uh” he begins, she places her fork into the cup. “I fell off a train” he says, “And then HYDRA found me and turned me into The Winter Soldier, do you understand?”_

_“A little” she says, poking at the noodles in her cup. “Why didn’t you run away?”_

_He swallows “I couldn’t” he replies_

_“But now you have” she says, “You got decommissioned, like Dr Bowden.”_

_He pauses, he doesn’t remember Dr Bowden “Not like him” He corrects “we both have been let off”_

_She nods. “I don’t understand what ‘let off’ means”_

_Bucky sits up straight and takes a moment to answer. “We’re free”_

Bucky tucks her into bed and turns off the TV, making sure the front door is locked and has a chair underneath the handle. A gun he had taken apart was now on the bedside table, back together and dry, he checked once more that the windows were locked as well as the door was safe before turning off the lights and joining Connie in bed.

“I’m glad you came back for me” she admits in a whisper

 

 


End file.
